Jung Seohui, Cui Yufei, Barnes Morgan, Satam Chinmay, Zhang Shenxiang, Chowdhury Reaz A, Adumbumkulath Aparna, Sahin Onur, Miller Corwin, Sajadi Seyed M, Sassi Lucas M, Ji Yue, Bennett Matthew R, Yu Miao, Friguglietti Jefferson, Merchant Fatima A, Verduzco Rafael, Roy Soumyabrata, Vajtai Robert, Meredith J Carson, Youngblood Jeffrey P, Koratkar Nikhil, Rahman Muhammad M, Ajayan Pulickel M
Department of Materials Science and NanoEngineering, Rice University, Houston, TX, 77005, USA.
Department of Bioengineering, Rice University, Houston, TX, 77005, USA.
Adv Mater. 2020 Jul;32(26):e1908291. doi: 10.1002/adma.201908291. Epub 2020 May 4.
Hunger and chronic undernourishment impact over 800 million people, which translates to ≈10.7% of the world's population. While countries are increasingly making efforts to reduce poverty and hunger by pursuing sustainable energy and agricultural practices, a third of the food produced around the globe still is wasted and never consumed. Reducing food shortages is vital in this effort and is often addressed by the development of genetically modified produce or chemical additives and inedible coatings, which create additional health and environmental concerns. Herein, a multifunctional bio-nanocomposite comprised largely of egg-derived polymers and cellulose nanomaterials as a conformal coating onto fresh produce that slows down food decay by retarding ripening, dehydration, and microbial invasion is reported. The coating is edible, washable, and made from readily available inexpensive or waste materials, which makes it a promising economic alternative to commercially available fruit coatings and a solution to combat food wastage that is rampant in the world.
饥饿和长期营养不良影响着超过8亿人，这相当于世界人口的约10.7%。虽然各国越来越多地通过推行可持续能源和农业实践来努力减少贫困和饥饿，但全球仍有三分之一的粮食被浪费，从未被食用。减少粮食短缺在这项工作中至关重要，人们通常通过开发转基因农产品、化学添加剂和不可食用涂层来解决这一问题，而这些又引发了额外的健康和环境问题。在此，本文报道了一种多功能生物纳米复合材料，该材料主要由鸡蛋衍生聚合物和纤维素纳米材料组成，作为一种保形涂层应用于新鲜农产品上，通过延缓成熟、脱水和微生物入侵来减缓食物腐烂。该涂层可食用、可清洗，且由容易获得的廉价或废弃材料制成，这使其成为市售水果涂层有前景的经济替代品，也是解决全球普遍存在的食物浪费问题的一种解决方案。
